To Mass media, NGOs and leaders of youth movements of the Kingdom of Sweden.

Dear Colleagues,

Massive pressure of international non-governmental organizations and human rights leaders, covering problems of the Republic of Uzbekistan, has become one of the main reasons for the cancellation of the visit of President Islam Karimov to Prague scheduled for February 21-23.

Not wanting to discredit his Cabinet, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic as well as a number of key ministers, including the Mayor of Prague, refused to meet with the leader of a totalitarian country Islam Karimov under plausible pretexts.

“Fiery Hearts Club” international human rights organization, the mission of which is protection of the fundamental rights and political freedoms in the Central Asian region, was one of the first, which called for protest against the visit of Islam Karimov in the Czech Republic, and published the purpose of such protests.

http://jarayon.com/en/index.php/politics/item/209-continued-dialogue-with-the-dictatorhttp://jarayon.com/en/index.php/component/k2/item/217-evidence-of-european-policy-double-standards

http://jarayon.com/ru/index.php/component/k2/item/706-dialog-s-diktatorom-nesmyvaemoe-pyatno-dlya-evropy

We solved all formalities and received a permission from the official authorities of the Czech Republic to conduct protest actions to be held at 10 a.m. on 21 February in Prague, on Hradcanske Namesti Square near the statue of the 1st President of the Czech Republic Tomas Masaryk. More than 50 people from the European Union as well as victims of the Karimov, who survived horrors of his totalitarian system, planned to participate at the action.

The protest action intended to attract attention of the world community to the powerless position of the Uzbek people. Also, it was dedicated to the anniversary of the assassination attempt on famous Uzbek cleric Obidkhon kori Nazarov, who was critically wounded in the head on February 22, 2012 in the Swedish town of Strömsund.

In the indictment dated July 18, 2012 in the District Court in Ostersund, Prosecutor Krister Petersson presented evidences that the arrested couple from Uzbekistan (Bakhodyr Pulotov and Nodira Aminova) had direct contacts with the contract killer, providing him with a variety of services for the attempt. According to the prosecutor, Obidkhon kori Nazarov was shot by Uzbek citizen Yuri Zhukovsky. Prosecutor K. Petersson demanded eight years of imprisonment for the married couple for the criminal implication, saying that the attack on the Imam was related to his political and religious activities, and that the attack was organized by the National Security Service of Uzbekistan.

But, despite prosecutor’s arguments, the court acquitted Bakhodyr Pulatov and Nodira Aminova on July 26, 2012 basing its decision on the fact that the prosecutor failed to provide sufficient evidences to indicate a direct role of the couple in planning and execution of the assassination attempt on Obidkhon kori Nazarov.

Representatives of the Uzbek Diaspora living in Sweden, together with Fiery Hearts Club international human rights organization, adhering to their solid positions and beliefs, intend to hold a joint protest on February 21 from 10.00 a.m. to 02.00 p.m. on Mynttorget Square the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

The ongoing protest has the following objectives:

– to find and bring to trial those, who ordered and executed the assassination attempt on Obidkhon kori Nazarov;

– to release all political prisoners languishing in prisons in Uzbekistan;

– to terminate tortures against detainees and prisoners in Uzbekistan;

– to provide conditions for smooth operation of non-governmental organizations in the country and to secure freedom of speech;

– to stop use of child and forced labor; to cease persecution of citizens for their religious beliefs;

– to conduct an international investigation into the Andizhan 2005 events and punish those responsible for mass shootings of civilians;

– to change the policy of TeliaSonera Telecommunications Company carried out in Uzbekistan, focusing their attention on the human rights situation in the country.

Dear NGO activists!

Representatives of the Uzbek diaspora living in Sweden and Fiery Hearts Club international human rights organization invite you to join and actively participate in our protest, which will be held on February 21 from 10.00 a.m. to 02.00 p.m. on Mynttorget Square near the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

We ask that you make every effort to attract the world community’s attention to the European policy of double standards applied against authoritarian regimes.

Leaders and activists of the youth movement!

In January 2012, students from Faculty of International Law of the Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense University, shocked by stories of Uzbek prisoners of conscience, created the student movement titled Fiery Hearts, and initiated and organized a protest actions and manifestations in honor of the 75th anniversary of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. The main requirements of the demonstrators were immediate release of all political prisoners in prisons of Uzbekistan, including oppositionists, human rights defenders, journalists, and people who were convicted for their religious beliefs. The given event was attended by the vast majority of reputable human rights organizations in Paris.

Dear friends, we call you to follow your French peers and conduct protest actions against relationship of democratic countries with authoritarian countries, one of which is Uzbekistan.

Taking this opportunity, we would like to appeal to the mass media in Sweden.

In Uzbekistan, it is not possible to hold free peaceful rallies, meetings and demonstrations, and the human rights situation in Uzbekistan remains outrageously unsatisfactory. Uzbek President Islam Karimov has deprived his people of the right to exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; he deprived them of freedom of expression and possibility to freely express them. In this regard, I urge you to report on pages of your media outlets numerous cases of bloody crimes of the Uzbek regime committed against its people.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva,

Head of “Fiery Hearts Club” international human rights organization

Paris, France

February 19, 2014